The Permanent Way

Blurb

The Permanent Way is a play by David Hare first performed in 2003.
In 1991 the British government decided to privatise the country's railways. David Hare recounts the development through the powerful first-hand accounts of those most intimately involved. From passengers to government ministers, their voices bear witness to a story of national mismanagement.
The play is a piece of verbatim theatre based on numerous interviews, by the actors themselves, of the people involved. With a little linking narrative added, skilful collating and editing allowed the quotations to take the form of powerful drama:
Actor Lloyd Hutchison of Out of Joint, the original acting company, describes Hare's contribution thus: "He puts in very, very little bridging material. The play is really one statement after another. He hasn't exactly written it; he collated it."
Incidents covered in the play include the passing of the Railways Act 1993 setting out the structure of rail privatization and the survival and bereavement stories resulting from the rail crashes of Southall, Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield, and Potters Bar.
The play first opened in York in November 2003, directed by Max Stafford-Clark.